While parents love the ways that Apple’s iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV promote learning, exploring, and fun, parents also want to be sure that their children are using Apple products and related technologies in ways that are safe, healthy, and appropriate. Are your members aware of Apple’s Families page and how it can help parents make sure that their children are using technology in the ways that parents want?

The site provides tips and tools to keep track of family app usage, determine when devices can be used, limit or block applications and notifications at bedtime, choose which apps are available for their children, provide for internet safety and kid-friendly content, manage in-app purchases (including Ask to Buy), know where their children are 24×7, find lost devices, share apps and music with the entire family, create group chats to stay in touch, reduce distractions, provide for emergency SOS and ensure medical information is there when needed, help emergency professionals locate family members, protect privacy, and so much more.

Your members may be wondering about the new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops. If so, ASW has a great set of presentations that could make for a good meeting topic.

MacBook Pro – Then and Now (L578071A-en_US) and MacBook Air – Then and Now *L581386A-en_US) offer comparisons of previous and current generations, letting your members know what has changed and what is the same. Then, MacBook Pro – First Look (L578070A-en_US) and MacBook Air – First Look (L581388A-en_US) provide the full specs for the newest in the MacBook line.

Ambassadors, August is a great month to use Apple resources in your meetings.

Many user group leaders may have been wondering what happened to our online Support Ticket System. Due to some updates from our web host, some of our backend services had some issues. We are glad to announce our ticket system is back up and running for your User Group Support and Leader questions. We apologize for the downtime. If you need to reach us and/or need to submit a support ticket, you can find the link here.

Last June, Glenn Fleishman, Senior Contributor for Macworld, wrote a great Mac911 column that could make for an interesting and useful meeting topic. The title? What you need to do when you inherit a Mac: Avoid a huge headache and do these things before you accept or buy a Mac from the estate of a deceased person.

Have you visited Today at Apple recently? There are 50 new sessions on offer,covering three categories: Skills, Walks, and Labs. In Skills sessions, youwill get familiar with the fundamental techniques and tools of a creativetopic. Labs dive deeper into a creative approach by getting you started on aproject that you can take further. Walks let you experiment with creativetechniques on a guided walk around the neighborhood,designed for all levels,from beginner to seasoned pro.

Whether you want to learn how to sketch architecture, take the perfect photousing professional techniques, make an app prototype, engage in a Sphero robotchallenge, or simply enhance your own creative skills, there is a session foryou!

Do you need a great presentation for a meeting? Why not have your members attend a Today at Apple, hands-on educational session? Not practical for a group gathering? Why not have one member attend, take notes and present the same topic at your next meeting. This month’s offerings include How To: Prototype an App Using Keynote, Sketch Walks: Architectural Sketching Techniques, and
Quick Start: Coding with Swift Playgrounds.

Nicholas Pyers of AppleUsers.org/ recently forwarded an article from our friends at TidBITS.

In the article, Jeff Porten covers TechSoup and how it can help nonprofits afford software from companies like Adobe, Google, Microsoft, and more. Yep, the company offers some hardware too. Better yet, TechSoup is not limited to one country or region, so groups who are formally nonprofit can benefit.

Read Jeff’s article and see if your group can benefit from the TechSoup discounts:

With Hurricane Lane fast approaching, it is time to get your technology prepared for such an event. Some key areas to think about are: backups, batteries/power, and other tech tips.

Backups

Now is the time to make sure your computer backup is in place and completed. This is typically an external backup drive or your data in the cloud. If an external backup drive, do one final backup and then unhook it and put it in a safe place. If you have access to a weatherproof safe, that would be ideal. If not, placing it in a ziplock bag or some place that can avoid water damage can help protect your data. If you are required to evacuate, take your backup drive with you. If you have a mobile phone, you can back it up to your computer as well, or use the cloud service backup built into the phone. Remember the 3-2-1 rule of backing up. Data in 3 places, 2 locations, 1 offsite.

Apple users have for the most part been protected from many of the viruses and malware issues experienced on the PC. But with the popularity of Apple products over the past decade, those wanting to take advantage and compromise your computer use experience has grown. Most recently, applications, search engine hijacks and web browser plug-ins are the culprits of what many Mac users think are “viruses.” This has become a popular discussion topic at user group meetings. So to help user groups, we are providing group leaders with a meeting guide and how you can address and discuss this issue at your meetings. Click on read more below to continue.

With the introduction of iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra, Apple has added some new features to iCloud Drive, offering the ability to share files. iCloud Drive is now offering sharing services similar to what DropBox and Google Drive offer. In the past iCloud drive was designed for personal access to files. For a user group, they can now create or use an existing iCloud account and share files with members or allow board members access to files.

iCloud Drive History:
Apple’s iCloud file services originally began as cloud storage for your iWork files. With the introduction of OS X Yosemite, it expanded to offer you storage of files and folders beyond iWork. In fact you can now access your Desktop and Documents folders in the cloud and on other devices. But in this article we are going to focus on the sharing features. As each macOS update has come along, Apple has continued to expanded its iCloud offerings. (more…)